I have a 2013 Lexus es300H. I will be going out of the country for 2 months . My car will be sitting idle in a garage. Any suggestions on which brand trickle charger should I buy? I plan to remove the trunk light , any other precautions I should take?

 

Any suggestions?

 

If you trust your dealer, ask them for recommendations. If not, give Lexus Customer Service a call and ask for suggestions.

 

According to information I have gathered from Lexus, two months is the absolute limit you can park your hybrid without needing to do anything but disconnect the 12V negative terminal. So you should be fine. What I would do before you leave is turn the car to the "READY" drive state (like starting your car) and let it sit in park for 30 minutes. Then immediately shut it off and disconnect your 12V. this will give your traction battery and 12V aux battery maximum charge before you leave. The car will charge itself. you can also do this by going for a light drive. (what i'd probably do) Just make sure the traction battery shows a full charge (or close to it) Cause sometimes you can park your car and the battery will be at half charge.

Enjoy your trip and come back and you should be fine.

 

Great suggestion @E46CT. Thank you!

 

Optima makes great "intelligent" chargers and trickle chargers. They aren't cheap, but they are high quality. I own the $200 version, but they also make a smaller unit for $80. Mine came with a fused trickle charging cord with a quick release. You attach the side with the fuse to your battery permanently. The other side connects to the charger through a maintenance charging port. This makes it fool-proof for fast/easy connect/disconnect.

 

Lexus has a convenient charger for storage and is what they call there smart charger and will not overcook but keep it up to snuff. I had one installed works well!